The
theme of family and relationships is very complex in 's novel . In the
text, Dana is a black woman living in 1976 California with her husband, Kevin, a white man. Dana
is suddenly and mysteriously transported to the antebellum South in the first chapter of the
novel, to a plantation that happens to be run by one of her ancestors. She saves a young boy
from drowning, a boy who will later grow up to be an exacting slaveholder who is one of Dana's
distant ancestors.
As Dana intermittently travels to the plantation, she
learns more about her family history, including the fact that her ancestors are a white
plantation owner and a slave he sexually assaulted. This is difficult heritage to learn about
for Dana, but on each trip to the past, she adapts and figures out ways to survive (sometimes by
using the advantages of the present, like pain-killing medication). The new knowledge about her
family makes her relationship with Rufus, the slaveholder and ancestor, very complicated. She
meets him in the past when he's just a boy and watches him grow into a harsh, abusive man. Late
in the story, obviously ignorant to his relationship to her, Rufus even tries to sexually
assault Dana. In her trips to the past, Dana also forms a relationship with her female ancestor,
Alice, and is able to more fully appreciate the struggles of black women under
slavery.
Beyond learning about and navigating her relationship with her
ancestors, Dana's experiences in the past inform her relationship with her husband, Kevin. She
begins to view her marriage in the context of the history of white men's sexual abuse of black
female slaves, which complicates her relationship with Kevin. At a certain point, Kevin travels
with her to the slave-holding South, and that history, and the power dynamic implicit in it, is
highlighted even more for Dana. Ultimately, though, Kevin's travels with Dana help him gain a
deeper understanding of Dana's position and experiences on the plantation.
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